London Borough of Lambeth (19 020 203)

Category : Benefits and tax > Council tax support

Decision : Upheld

Decision date : 14 Jan 2021

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: Miss X complains the Council did not properly deal with her Council Tax bills and her Council Tax Support. The Council is at fault because it did not deal with her complaint properly and sent Miss X confusing information and multiple bills with different amounts to pay. Miss X was unsure about what she had to pay. The Council has agreed to apologise to Miss X and pay her £100 for her time and trouble.

The complaint

  1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Miss X, complains that between December 2019 and March 2020, the Council made contradictory decisions about her entitlement to council tax support. This resulted in demands to pay different amounts of money, which caused Miss X confusion and put her to time and trouble pursuing the matter.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

  1. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
  2. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

  1. I spoke to Miss X and considered the details of his complaint. I reviewed documents sent by Miss X and documents provided by the Council.
  2. Miss X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

Council Tax Support and Single Person Discount

  1. There is a locally determined council tax reduction scheme (also known as Council Tax Support or CTS). Residents on low incomes can apply to receive a reduction to their council tax payments.
  2. People may qualify for a 25% council tax reduction if they are living on their own. (also known as Single Person Discount or SPD).

What happened

  1. The Council wrote to Miss X on the following occasions.

Date

Letter

Reason

Bill

2 Dec

Adjustment Bill (2019/20)

Change to CTS

£622.10

4 Dec

Adjustment Bill (2019/20)

Change to SPD

£15.00

4 Dec

Exemption notice (2019/20)

  1. Period of exemption: 09.09.2019 to 31.03.2020

£85.90

31 Dec

Reminder (2018/19)

Amount outstanding

£67.79

31 Dec

Reminder (2019/20)

Amount outstanding

£15.00

6 Jan

Adjustment Bill (2018/19)

Change to CTS

£3.11

6 Jan

Adjustment Bill (2019/20)

Change to SPD

£0.00

6 Jan

Adjustment Bill (2018/19)

Change to CTS

£67.79

7 Jan

Arrangement notice

Confirming arrangement

£67.79

10 Feb

Exemption notice (2019/20)

Period of exemption: 09.09.2019 to 31.03.2020

£70.90

24 Feb

Bill (2019/20)

Amount payable

Amount outstanding

£202.37

£70.90

13 Mar

Bill (2020/21)

Balance 2020/21

Amount outstanding

£0.00

£273.27

16 Mar

Adjustment Bill (2019/20)

Change to SPD

£0.00

16 Mar

Adjustment Bill (2020/21)

Change to CTS

£0.00

  1. Miss X complained to the Council on 6 January about the reminders sent to her on 31 December saying there was no explanation given why she owed these amounts. She complained about the service she had received when she queried the letters and asked for the bills to be reviewed.
  2. The Council sent Miss X letters on 6 and 7 January which explained her bills for 2018/19 and 2019/20 together with details of a payment arrangement for the outstanding amounts for 2018/19.
  3. The Council replied to Miss X’s complaint on 14 January with a short explanation of her liability for Council Tax, referring to changes to her entitlement to CTS. This did not include any rationale for the changes to CTS.
  4. Miss X complained to the Council again after she received the 10 Feb exemption notice, saying the Council had incorrectly stopped her CTS again because it thought she was a full-time student.
  5. The Council replied again on 24 February to Miss X’s complaint, specifically about her student status and confirmed she was not a full-time student and her CTS had been re-instated. The Council sent a bill to Miss X on the same day.
  6. The Council sent a further bill to Miss X in March confirming her Council Tax bill for 2019/20 was £0.

Analysis

  1. The Council sent Miss X a significant number of letters which covered three separate Council Tax liability periods, because of separate changes to CTS, SPD and student exemption.
  2. While these were clearly identifiable, I can understand why Miss X was confused by the multiple letters with different payable amounts.
  3. The Council agreed it had incorrectly stopped Miss X’s CTS and re-instated it.
  4. The Council did not respond to Miss X’s complaint properly because:
    • it sent an incomplete response to Miss X on 14 January, which did not address the changes to CTS.
    • the part of Miss X’s complaint concerning changes to CTS was not dealt with until 24 February.
  5. The Council sent wrong or contradictory bills to Miss X because:
    • the exemption notice sent to Miss X on 4 December states she has amounts owing for other periods of £85.90. This contradicts the adjustment bill of the same date which states £15.00 of that amount is from 2019/20.
    • the exemption notice sent to Miss X on 10 February is for £15 less than the same notice sent to her on 4 December. The amount stated as outstanding was correctly for the 2018/19 Council Tax year.
    • the Council accepted on 6 January, based on an incorrect calculation, that Miss X owed nothing for the Council Tax year 2019/20, before it responded to her complaint fully on 24 February.
    • the bill sent to Miss X on 24 February, when it agreed to re-instate her CTS, did not include her SPD. It showed an outstanding balance of £202.37 for 2019/20, and an outstanding balance of £70.90 for 2018/19. Miss X had already agreed a payment arrangement for the £70.90.
    • in March, the Council agreed Miss X owed nothing for the year 2019/20, after including her SPD.
  6. This is fault by the Council. Although it later reversed its decision to stop Miss X’s CTS and accepted she was not a full time student, the Council’s actions meant Miss X had to complain again.

Agreed action

  1. To remedy the injustice caused by the fault I have identified, the Council has agreed to take the following action within 4 weeks of this decision:
    • Apologise to Miss X.
    • Pay Miss X £100 for her time and trouble.

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Final decision

  1. I have found fault by the Council causing injustice to Miss X. I have now completed my investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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